LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Student Presentation on Reading Selections, summer 2002

Selection Reading: “Resistance to Civil Government” – Thoreau

Selection Reader: Krisann Muskievicz
Selection Recorder: Dendy Farrar
6/18/02

In relating “Resistance to Civil Government” to American Romanticism, three main topics were discussed:  1. material gratification vs. moral ethics (The Mexican War and slavery as economic and moral issues), 2. man vs. machine (the individual’s separation from the masses/government), and 3. the power of the individual (the duty to follow one’s conscience).  Thoreau’s emphasis on the individual can be seen throughout the piece.  For example, on pages 852-3, “This American government, what is but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man,” and “Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step towards attaining it.” 

However, the power of the individual is reduced if he partakes in the government’s machinery.  “The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies,” (854).  Man is not only his physical being, but his mind and conscience also.  Conscience collides with government’s desire for capital gain on page 855.  “When a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.”  Thoreau continues with an accusation of merchants and farmers “who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may,” (page 855).  The emphasis on “cost” recurs as Thoreau addresses opinion as short of action.  “There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; …What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot today?” (856).

Voting is not sufficient action in Thoreau’s opinion, and he trivializes it in a comparison to gambling.  He predicts the vote against slavery occurring too late to be effectual.  “When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote,” (856).  Voting would therefore be meaningless.  One must actually do something, not simply agree, disagree, vote, or furnish a substitute, as seen on page 857.  “I have heard some of my townsmen say, ‘I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico, -see if I would go;’ and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute.”

Man is challenged to clog the machine of government (858), reject material needs through self-sustainment (861), and if need be, suffer jail.  “I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous.  As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body,” (862).  Jail is part of the peaceable revolution as revived by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Peaceful fulfillment of the conscience is man’s defining purpose.

Therefore, the question for discussion was, “Analysts have suggested that this piece could alternatively be titled “The Declaration of Independence for the Conscience.”  How could this alternate title apply to our study of American Romanticism?”

Jennifer responded that the conscience can cross boundaries, even though their bodies are imprisoned.  It is his mind – no one else’s. 

Liz stated that Thoreau is calling for someone to stop the motion of the machine, as an act of rage against the machine.  Jill commented about Thoreau’s intention to mentally defeat the machine, not advocating the use of violence or guns.  David and Dr. White discussed the machine image being used in a symbolic sense, and the negative portrayal of the machine.  This negative use of the image raises the issues of moral choice and Thoreau’s advice to the individual conscience to rise above what the government says.

Al asked the question, “Is he an anarchist?” Lynda speculated that the country needs a revolution about every 20 years.  Krisann referenced page 867, “The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual.  Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government?”  In response, Beth asked if Thoreau is suggesting we move backwards instead of forwards.  Al stated that we should not move backwards, but forwards, and that Thoreau’s words are mental fantasies.  It is unrealistic for everyone to go out into the woods, where everyone is to him/herself in solitude, creating a solitary revolution of one for everyone (not unlike the Unabomber).

Krisann referred to the handout on passive resistance, pointing out the characteristics of voluntary simplicity and lack of violence.  In the title “Civil Disobedience,” “civil” can refer to the government, as well as to rational thought.  David added that we know humankind began as a group, in a social situation, but individuals shouldn’t be dominated by a pervading thought or idea.  Dr. White expanded upon the idea of self-determination, stating that Thoreau was a follower of Jefferson.  Though Jefferson did not live a life of voluntary simplicity, Thoreau tried this.  Like being in jail and having a free mind, living in a city and reading Walden is a type of escape for the mind.  Al discussed a Jack London novel in which a man is restrained physically but mentally experiences stories and memories, like Kellye’s example of Owl Creek Bridge.

Dr. White mentioned that going back to an earlier time and simpler ways is a powerful idea in American thought.  The frontier becomes a metaphor for free-market capitalism and “survival of the fittest.”  The discussion concluded with recognition of Darwin’s Origin of Species.  Though it is a generation off, we can project it backwards to these ways of thinking.